I hope today has started out well for you. I wanted to talk about facebook with you today.
On facebook there are a number of zynga games that the teens and older kids are playing. I'm sure you've heard of Farmville, Zoo World, Frontierville and the like.
I had my doubts about Ryan being on facebook at all and if he'd be able to master something like Farmville but nothing tried nothing gained, right? So I got him a hotmail account, filled out a fairly restricted facebook page and friended him to family and close close friends only. THen I got him on Farmville, found him friends and family as neighbors and began the long process of teaching him the mechanics of the game. Over many months, he can now harvest crop, trees and animals by clicking on them, plant crops and even click on neighbors posted at the bottom to visit their farms. He still needs help with manhy of the steps but he feels like he's part of the young adult community. It's sooo worth it. It's like a simple computer game with the added benefit that he's interacting with family and friends.
We're working on IM. People IM him and he's good with one word answers but sometimes needs me to help. Often if someone is IMing he wants to Skype them so he can see them talking too. Not too many family members have gotten skype yet and we need to badger them into it.
At any rate, not that I'm promo'ing Farmville for zynga and Facebook, but you might want to try your special young adult or teen out on it. It really makes them feel like "everyone else" as they buy talk to each other about their farms when they see each other. It's just one more way of communicating for Ryan. Everyone wants more neighbors so we do get friend and farmville requests. I'm the one who "accepts" or "rejects" those. So far, so good. While there have been multiple warnings in the media about privacy breeches, YOU set the privacy setting and it's the kids and adults who are sharing with everyone that end up in trouble. Stick to family and close friends for your loved one with special needs.
Email proved to be too difficult but we're working on that too. Who knows? Again, sometimes things just take a while.
Good luck if you try it. A word of caution, you may find that you enjoy it too!
Much love and joy,
Karen
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